Pepper Advantage, a leading global credit intelligence, credit management and credit investment company, has opened its state-of-the-art Tech Hub in Pune, India. This marks a significant stride in the company’s commitment to fostering innovation and using AI to drive its technology development efforts. With India’s fintech sector forecast to reach USD 190 billion (INR 15.8 lakh crores) by 2030, growing at an annual rate of over 35%, Pepper Advantage has decided to base the centre of its technological developments in this market.

Following the acquisition of Loanguard, the AI-driven credit risk management platform previously known as Rieom.ai, Pepper Advantage is transforming its global technology development by centralising operations. The Tech Hub will advance new credit technologies and analytics, particularly for risk assessments during loan origination and servicing. Pepper Advantage’s cutting-edge technology and algorithms empower lenders with a unified platform for accessing a comprehensive suite of solutions that facilitate data-driven decisions. Its data and analytic services help bring about a significant reduction in the risks associated with fraudulent documents and financial frauds during the loan underwriting process.

A dynamic team currently consisting of 50 researchers, programmers and analysts forms the core of the Tech Hub. This strategic hub is not only a powerhouse for AI-driven innovation but also serves as the nerve center for Pepper Advantage’s technology development and will advance products that serve clients in India, Indonesia, the Middle East, and other Southeast Asian and European markets.

Commenting on the launch of the Tech Hub, Fraser Gemmell, Chief Executive Officer, Pepper Advantage, said, “Our growth in 2023 has been driven by the value customers place on our technological innovation and data-driven solutions. Our transformative journey gains momentum with the launch of the Tech Hub, which demonstrates our commitment both to developing new credit technologies and making substantial contributions to India’s thriving fintech ecosystem.”

Reflecting on the launch, Mukund Kulkarni, CEO, Pepper Advantage India, said, “We’re delighted Pepper Advantage’s Tech Hub will be based in India. Since the acquisition of Loanguard, we have grown our customer base in India by 40%, while AUM has grown over 200%. Fuelled by technology advances and the rapid growth of our fintech sector, India will soon become a global hub for technology and artificial intelligence, not just for Pepper Advantage but also for the world.”

Source: Press Release

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In the current landscape of technological prowess, businesses are rapidly moving to the cloud. NetApp’s latest Data Complexity Report reveals that 98% of global organisations are on this journey. Interestingly, three out of four still depend on on-premises storage, emphasising the ongoing importance of in-house infrastructure. This data emphasises the need for a unified approach to hybrid multicloud architectures in 2024 and beyond. Such an approach seamlessly combines on-premises all-flash storage with public cloud solutions, ensuring top-notch performance and accessibility.

As the industry continues to move towards widespread adoption of AI at scale, 2024 is poised to see unified data storage solutions take centre stage, and here’s why:

Cloud Adoption: Businesses today have a unique opportunity to strategically align their IT infrastructure with the evolving needs of an increasingly digital and interconnected world. In the near future, this alignment will enable agility and scalability for future growth and innovation. However, it’s important to note that cloud migration is not a linear process. Among tech executives planning to migrate workloads to the cloud, three out of four still retain the majority of their workloads on-premises. More precisely, 84% of the organisations are either in the mid journey or in the mature phase. Integrating AI into this dynamic landscape further enhances the potential for transformative innovation and efficiency gains.

The Rise of AI: India’s swift adoption of AI prioritises GenAI, the leading use-case for AI in the country. It emphasises boosting performance, cost efficiency, and highlights the crucial role of flash innovation in supporting AI and ML workloads.

The pivotal force propelling cloud migration is the widespread embrace of AI, as evidenced by our findings, where a substantial 74% of respondents leverage public cloud services for AI and analytics. Tech executives across the globe resoundingly articulate the essentiality of Flash innovation in optimizing AI performance, cost, and efficiency, with a notable 39% acknowledging its crucial role.

Enterprises are progressively integrating AI into their frameworks, with a significant emphasis on harnessing generative AI and tapping into public cloud AI and analytics services. As AI becomes more ingrained in infrastructure, IT leaders advocate for augmented funding, with 63% of AI budgets stemming from new funding sources. The anticipation is palpable, with leaders expecting to forge alliances with new vendors to navigate the expanding influence of AI within their organisational framework.

Data Security & Protection: In the era of AI, security threats are a major concern for C-level executives and IT decision makers in India. A majority of Indian IT leaders see data security as the primary challenge for realising AI’s potential, with security threats ranking as the leading cause of complexity in storage infrastructure. NetApp’s report underscores the critical role of AI in safeguarding against cyber threats. Moreover, executives consider ransomware attack mitigation as a top priority, emphasising the indispensable nature of AI in addressing these challenges. Notably, companies anticipate it would take days or weeks to recover from cyberattacks, underscoring the significant risk posed to their business and reinforcing the crucial role of AI in fortifying cybersecurity measures.

Sustainability: A growing number of Indian organisations now view mitigating environmental impact not only as an option but as an essential aspect of their sustainability efforts. This commitment extends to flash storage innovation, where prioritising energy and carbon footprint metrics is deemed crucial for future sustainability. The Data Complexity Report underlines the significance of sustainability as a critical factor in choosing storage vendors, with a notable percentage recognising the reduction of energy and carbon footprint as integral to responsible AI practices. Moreover, a substantial majority agrees that reducing their company’s carbon footprint is a vital aspect of broader sustainability initiatives. This underscores the imperative for forward-thinking organisations to align AI advancement with environmental responsibility in navigating the rapidly evolving technological landscape.

The Cloud-Driven Flash Storage revolution

Looking ahead, cloud-enabled flash storage will reshape technological innovation and business operations. As organisations tackle data complexity, integrating this technology will be crucial for agility, scalability, and efficiency in handling AI-driven workloads. Leveraging this transformative tech will help businesses adapt to digital demands, fostering streamlined operations, better performance, and accelerated innovation for success in the global market.

Source: Press Release

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Nephrocare India proudly completes two years of its thriving existence today. Regular 30 minutes of brisk walking keeps the kidneys healthy and keeping this in mind we organized ‘A walk for your kidney’ – A walkathon which was arranged with about 400 participants along with celebrities who matched their steps to spread the idea of this healthy practice. The walk started from Nephrocare and ended at Hotel Golden Tulip. The event was followed by tea and a message from beloved director, Dr. Pratim Sengupta. The event was attended by several eminent personalities: Dr. Pratim Sengupta, Founder & Director of Nephro Care; Nandita Roy, Film Maker; Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Director; Dr Tirthankar Bagchi, CEO OF ILS Group of Hospital; Debasish Dutta, Secretary Mohan Bagan Club; Ashish Mittal, Director, Golden Tulip Hotel and many other eminent personalities. The event was managed by Map5 Events.

Speaking to the media, Nephrologist, Dr. Pratim Sengupta, Founder & Director of Nephro Care said, “Today is our second anniversary, we have completed two successful years working towards prevention of kidney disease and its treatment. When a person counters metabolic disorders then the treatment takes a lot of time, effort and money. For a country like India, which is resource-constrained, prevention is better than cure works best and that is the mantra for us at Nephrocare. Lifestyle disease is one of the biggest causes of several health issues and it can only be cured or reverted by lifestyle changes. We, at Nephrocare, firmly believe 30 minutes of brisk walking everyday can solve a lot of our health problems. Today on this second anniversary of Nephrocare India, we want to highlight our commitment towards ensuring kidney health by expanding our presence across the country and setting up 300 comprehensive and holistic kidney care units to touch close to one million lives in the coming years.”

Nephrocare treats patients in a unique way, and its mission is to provide comprehensive and compassionate care at affordable cost. All diagnosis and treatment decisions are based on pathology and laboratory reporting added with much logical inference, considering the human body with all its functionality in linear understandable fashion as everyone has their own challenges. Every being has a Physical Body coupled with a Mental Body & Spiritual Body with an infinite Energy Body. Our laboratory investigation gives us information about our physical ailments, but a significant component of any diseased state exists in other three forms of our existence. Reaching that domain is often neglected or mostly overlooked sticking to textbook definition of treatments.

“At Nephro Care India we analyze all these aspects of the disease scientifically and provide a holistic medical care to the patient. For whosoever visiting Nephro Care India, it’s our policy that all doctors and caregivers treat individuals as a family member and do all that they would for someone they love with all their heart.”

The advanced renal care institute, which was founded by the renowned nephrologist, Bharat Jyoti Awardee, Dr Pratim Sengupta, also launched a Mascot – “Mr Nephrocare” on the occasion, to create a connect with common people and spread awareness about various aspects of kidney health, the need to focus on kidney care, the importance of undertaking routine tests for early detection of anomalies and going in for holistic treatment to address any issues pertaining to the kidney. The Mascot visited various key places in the city and outskirts during the course of the day to spread awareness around kidney health.

Nephrocare: A comprehensive and compassionate kidney care Institute: Nephro Care India Pvt. Ltd is one of the most esteemed health care institutions focused on caring for the most intensive kidney disease patients, had been established in the month of December 2021, by eminent and noteworthy Nephrologist Dr. Pratim Sengupta.

Kidney disease: A silent epidemic: Kidney disease is a silent epidemic and India is contributing the highest numbers of renal failure patients in the world. 1 out of 11 Indians may be a victim of renal failure. Diabetes and hypertension are the leading cause of renal failure. 30 % of patients suffering from diabetes will develop chronic renal failure in later phase of their life. Pain killer abuse is the 3^rd most important cause of renal failure in India. The disease is silent in its initial stages but symptoms surfaces only when 70% of kidney function is compromised. More than 2 lakh people add to the list of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) every year, requiring dialysis support to sustain life. There are limited resources available to combat such huge number of renal failure cases annually. It is estimated that for roughly every 72,000 renal failure patient there is one specialized doctor to serve them which is literally impossible. Renal transplantation unit and dialysis centers are also not surplus to handle the situation. Prevention, early detection, and the creation of comprehensive renal care facilities across India are the only effective ways to combat this silent epidemic where NephroCare aim daily to set its mark one day at a time.

Source: Press Release

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The Federation of Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME), hosted a roundtable session to deliberate on the challenges faced by MSMEs within the e-commerce sector under the current GST regime and put forth recommendations to promote ease of doing business. The event witnessed participation by key stakeholders, including ‘Friends of MSME’ in Parliament (a group of members of Parliament across parties), tax experts, MSME industry associations, and online sellers.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Rajendra Agrawal, Hon’ble MP (Meerut), said, “The objective of this dialogue is clear: to resolve the challenges faced by MSMEs, who are integral to our economy. Any issues discussed, including the hurdles encountered by MSME sellers, will be shared with the relevant ministry and officials for resolution. The PM’s vision of  Atmanirbhar Bharat cannot be achieved without the support of the MSME sector. We urge MSMEs to present their case, enabling us to advocate on their behalf in the Parliament and prompt the government to consider and address their concerns.”

During the roundtable, sellers underscored the ongoing challenges posed by the burdensome GST requirements, notably the obligation to secure Principal Place of Business (PPOB) registrations in every state of operation. This necessitates the need for physical offices, incurring working capital block and personnel costs. Updating GST certificates for additional premises creates complexity as there is a 2-4 week long waiting period for Additional Place of Business (APOB) registration, causing losses during sales. Additionally, the mandatory physical invoice in the digital age and the 1% TCS monitoring mechanism lead to working capital inefficiencies for e-commerce sellers.

Mr. Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General, FISME, said, “It is astonishing that while PM Narendra Modi is giving a lot of push and encouragement to digital and e-commerce trade to connect small entrepreneurs and artisans to wider markets through e-commerce, they encounter huge difficulties in complying with GST provisions. They are required to obtain multiple registrations in states where goods are stored, are asked to create a full set-up and wait for months for adding new places. Tax processes, harassment and intimidation by state tax authorities are pulling the clock back for ease of doing business.”

Addressing their concerns, Ms. Mamatha Anand, Partner – Indirect Taxes, Deloitte, highlighted, “MSMEs are an essential part of the Indian economy as they contribute 30% to the GDP of the nation. The commitment of the government to increase this contribution to 50% in the coming year is commendable. Apart from government subsidies, quick loan approvals, lower electricity costs, and accessibility to MSME clusters, from a GST standpoint, the compensation scheme that allows MSME players to opt for fixed rates rather than the regular GST mechanism is beneficial.” She also added, “There is a need to relook across sectors to identify areas of improvement for MSMEs. Measures to ease registration hassles, improve working capital blockages, rationalization of rates are some of the key areas that warrant attention.”

Key recommendations tabled during the session include:

• Adopting a single home state PPOB model in GST regulations will enhance operational flexibility for sellers, streamline MSMEs’ expansion through e-commerce, safeguard state GST revenue, and maintain transparent audit trails.
• Permitting digital B2C transaction invoices will aid MSMEs in cost reduction and contribute to minimizing carbon footprint.
• An API-based APOB registration system by e-commerce operators for each seller’s GSTIN at warehouses will help reduce time required for inventory placement and eliminate repeated verification for the same premises.
• Reducing the TCS rate to 0.1% cumulatively will resolve the working capital issue for sellers and help maintain continued visibility.
• Ensure automation of the cash balance refund within T+3/5 days of filing of the application.
• Issue circular explaining the business model of the e-commerce seller.
• Provide comprehensive training to tax officers, equipping them with a nuanced understanding of the new-age e-commerce business model.

The dialogue also witness participation by esteemed guests such as Jagdambika Pal, Hon’ble MP (Dumariya Ganj), Pradeep Kumar Chaudhary, Hon’ble MP (Kairana), Dilip Saika Hon’ble MP (Mangaldoi), Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Hon’ble MP (Sonipat), Subhash Chand Baheria, Hon’ble MP (Bhilwari), and Sankar Lalwani, Hon’ble MP (Indore).

Source: Press Release

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The Indian Institute of Management Ranchi celebrated its Fifteenth Foundation Day today in Swami Vivekananda Auditorium at the campus, commencing with an address by the Honourable Director, Prof. Deepak Kumar Srivastava. During his address, he highlighted IIM Ranchi’s remarkable 14-year journey. He acknowledged the recent dedication of the campus to the nation by Honourable Prime Minister. Emphasizing the world-class facilities and current program offerings, he spoke of the institution’s confidence, which is evident in the robust placement report. He also showcased recent achievements, notably the establishment of a satellite center in Hyderabad. He highlighted about the research and publications of institute in last two years.

In the virtual address to commemorate IIM Ranchi’s Fifteenth Foundation Day, Shri Praveen Shankar Pandya, Chairman, Board of Governors (BoG), IIM Ranchi, expressed gratitude for the institution’s infrastructure. He encouraged students to engage in community and business initiatives actively, fostering sustainability. Emphasizing the importance of contributing to the tribal community and local businesses, the Chairman highlighted the BoG’s commitment to facilitating development. Specific mention was made of the Board’s readiness to support the enhancement of facilities and sports arrangements through dedicated committees.

The institute hosted a felicitation ceremony to the staff members on completing ten years of service. Recognizing academic excellence, the rank holders were awarded with certificates.

IIM Ranchi welcomed Shri Ramaswami Balasubramanium, Member (HR), Capacity Building Commission, Government of India, as the Chief Guest cum distinguished speaker for the Foundation Day lecture. He emphasized the societal significance of individuals, emphasizing the need to transcend mere rule adherence. Addressing survival requisites, he highlighted essential elements of disruption, innovation, leadership, and digital literacy. Advocating for student preparedness in contemporary skills such as AI/ML and technology, he underscored their evolution from specialist to generalist roles. Mr. Balasubramanium urged faculties to co-learn with students, emphasizing authenticity in a world dominated by fake content. He expressed concern over opinion formation based on brief social media content and urged a deeper understanding of topics. He concluded by addressing the current global crisis, noting the paradigm shift towards a survival imperative.

The day included cultural events, a plantation drive, and a sports & games event for faculty members, concluding with an evening Hi-Tea session.

Source: Press Release

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Responsive, the global leader in strategic response management (SRM) software, today announced the opening of its new office in Coimbatore, India. Need for the new space stemmed from Responsive’s rapid growth as the market leader in strategic response management, and to support that growth, the new space will accommodate nearly double the number of employees of the previous India office.

The strategic response management market is also experiencing robust growth, with an estimated value of $3.34B in 2022 and projected increase to $22.74B by 2028. Aragon Research found, “Strategic Response Management is quickly emerging as the next ‘must-have’ category of enterprise solutions for go-to-market teams.” Companies are increasingly adopting SRM solutions to respond to a growing number of business-critical information requests including RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires, due diligence questionnaires, ESG questionnaires, and more. Responsive’s Strategic Response Management Platform provides business value by automating these processes and recently earned “Hot Vendor” status in the space.

Responsive originally established its product development operations in Coimbatore, India. Since then, the company has built the majority of its product team in India while also adding other team members in sales, marketing, customer success, professional services, finance and beyond. Coimbatore has proven to be a very rich market of highly talented team members who play an integral part in Responsive’s rapid growth.

Responsive CEO Ganesh Shankar, a Coimbatore native, knows firsthand the strength of the talent pool in the area. In Coimbatore, Responsive has built a local team that’s been able to move quickly, deliver industry-leading product capabilities while contributing to global go-to-market efforts, all while collaborating very effectively with colleagues around the world.

“Our growth in Coimbatore is reflective of Responsive’s evolution and progress toward realizing our ambition to transform how global organizations share and exchange information,” said Ganesh Shankar, CEO at Responsive. “We’re thrilled to provide a new space to our local team members as they continue to rapidly innovate, and to have more space to support hiring additional employees in the area.”

Office expansion is just one facet of Responsive’s success in the past year. Responsive also:

• Rebranded from RFPIO to reflect significant expansion in the breadth of response use cases supported beyond RFPs
• Won three Comparably 2023 awards for Best Company Work-Life Balance, Best Leadership Teams and Best Marketing Teams
• Ranked #1 in 9 of G2’s Fall 2023 Grid® Market Reports, including Best Global RFP Software
• Delivered industry-leading Responsive Summit23 showcasing overall value proposition and customer highlights and attracting more than 3,000 participants to-date across 44 countries
• Launched multiple new AI-driven products to extend market-leading AI capabilities, including:
  • Enhanced AI Assistant: Responsive’s generative AI solution for creating summarizing and elaborating response content now sources information from customers’ Content Libraries, in addition to publicly available sources, enabling faster response times and productivity
• Expanded robust executive leadership team to support company hypergrowth
  • Responsive’s new leaders are veterans of hypergrowth SaaS enterprises including CMO Michael Londgren, CRO Jeff Santelices, VP of Product Marketing Jennifer Cannizzaro, VP of Sales & Marketing Ops Imran Musaev, and VP of Growth Francois-Olivier Grisel
• Increased hiring for remote employees in Bangalore and Chennai

“As a company leader onsite in the Coimbatore office, I get to see our employee base growing and revolutionizing the SRM space in real time each day,” said Manish Bafna, SVP of Engineering at Responsive. “Our company and employee growth have been steadily rising, and I’m thrilled to be a part of this proud moment, which demonstrates our commitment to a collaborative working environment for our team, our investment in the strategic response management industry, and the power of tapping into Coimbatore’s robust talent pool.”

Source: Press Release

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Automation Anywhere, the leader in intelligent automation solutions that put artificial intelligence (AI) to work across every aspect of an organization, released its fourth Indian edition of the Automation Now & Next report, emphasizing the significance of process automation and generative AI as key investment catalysts for Indian enterprises.

The Automation Anywhere commissioned survey underscores the critical role these technologies will play in facilitating organizations to attain their primary objective of exponential growth. Notably, the report indicates 63% of Indian enterprises are proactively directing investments towards artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for the automation of their business processes in the upcoming 12 months, witnessing 85% growth in AI investments since last year. Furthermore, 33% of these enterprises are strategically planning to adopt Generative AI as a driving force for growth, reflecting a forward-looking approach towards innovative technologies in pursuit of business optimization and transformation.

Currently, more than 78% of enterprises say productivity gains are the desired impact of automation, surpassing all other KPIs.  The Now and Next report predicts to see more AI-driven innovations, especially as generative AI deployments increases with 72% of the respondents globally investing in AI/ML over the next 12 months.

“Productivity is foundational to economic growth and the world’s next level of evolution. Intelligent automation, including AI and generative AI, are proving crucial to solving the massive productivity crisis unfolding in front of us,” said Ankur Kothari,” Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer, Automation Anywhere. “The 2023 Now and Next report echoes our long-held belief that intelligent automation is the only true solution to the current workforce challenges facing organizations around the globe.”

“Intelligent Automation technologies are designed to improve efficiency, scale operations, and enhance business and employee productivity. Productivity is paramount in today’s dynamic business landscape, and adoption of intelligent automation, especially with generative AI, is crucial for success. Measuring ROI confirms its impact, substantially increasing customer satisfaction and employee engagement.” — Suresh Ramanan, Managing Principal and Intelligent Automation Practice Lead, ZS Associates.

The three major takeaways from the Now & Next Report, released by Automation Anywhere –

Barriers to adopting AI technologies by Indian enterprises:

Despite the widespread recognition of AI’s value in Indian enterprises, deployment challenges persist; however, determined and focused organizations are navigating through these barriers

• According to 39% of respondents, data challenges and regulatory/ethical concerns stand out as the primary obstacles to adopting AI technologies.
• According to 52% of respondents, technical complexities and data security are the challenges/barriers they feel in adopting and using AI.
• Despite these concerns, 33% of Indian enterprises express confidence in implementing robust security measures and privacy protocols to mitigate potential risks associated with AI technologies. This confidence empowers them to embrace AI and Intelligent Automation technologies with assurance.

Overcoming India’s productivity challenges with Intelligent Automation:

Return on Investment (ROI) and work productivity remain on top for measuring the success of automation solutions implemented by Indian Enterprises

• 80% of Indian enterprises are planning to determine the impact of Intelligent automation based on business ROI, however, more than 70% of respondents from Indian enterprises say they measure the success of Intelligent automation based on customer and employee satisfaction levels.
• 63% plan to use industry-specific intelligent automation to solve their specialized requirements.
• 59% of respondents from Indian enterprises believe this higher level of growth requires moving beyond low-stakes task automation and end-to-end process transformation.

GenAI to accelerate scalability for automation:

According to the survey, true transformation requires automation at scale. Business users are crucial to the citizen development efforts that will drive automation at scale while keeping their business objectives in mind.

• Globally, 40% of business users say citizen development is broadly encouraged, while another 41% said it is encouraged in select business areas.
• 48% of the respondents from Indian Enterprise encourage business users to build and scale automation.
• However, respondents from Indian enterprises say security and governance concerns (60%) and a lack of technical skills and training (51%) are preventing automation leaders from encouraging widespread citizen development.
• The Now and Next report predicts that generative AI-powered virtual assistants will enable business users to turn conversational requests into consistent, governed, and high-quality complex automations.
• Most respondents (82%) are looking for specialized and industry-specific automation technologies, such as custom large language models for generative AI.

“We see significant scaling up of investments in Automation and AI/ML at our customers with generative AI driving the identification of new use cases and improving business outcomes. Organizations are increasingly moving up the value chain from automating only rule based, large volume transactions to providing real-time business insights supporting strategic goals. This is expected to unlock significantly faster decision-making capabilities and enhanced customer experiences, driving growth and profitability.” — Satyen Makhija, Partner, Head – Automation and Platforms, KPMG.

Source: Press Release

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